Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard • Hacker News Board

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#31

Post by chrismorgan » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 7:38 PM UTC

agrafix wrote: post #3

Shameless plug: I’ve built https://board.new to help with ad-hoc collaborative whiteboarding. One thing I’ve found using more sophisticated tools was that folks spent too much time making it look nice vs discussing the content. Hence this tool that doesn’t distract with that. That said, mermaid looks pretty nice —- going to try that out for my design documents once settled on an approach.

I just tried using this, and it was completely unusable. It was constantly operating in the wrong mode, the z/shift keyboard shortcuts would do the wrong thing most of the time (the only time they seemed to possibly work properly was when in text mode, except that then they’re doing something for text mode as well), colour switching normally didn’t work, when I start drawing lines it first draws one segment from some arbitrary location (probably a point on the last line or some arbitrary earlier-drawn line).

There are clearly some very serious logic and mode bugs present.

I’m using Firefox on Windows, and tried it with mouse, pen and touch.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#32

Post by theptip » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 7:38 PM UTC

nanidin wrote: post #26

I was fully remote before COVID, and the best solution I have come up with so far is iPad + Apple Pencil + Google Jamboard. I can open it on my PC and screen share from there into meetings or with others than don’t use Jamboard.

I tried a bunch of different options when my team went remote, including

* Google Drawings (yuck)

* LucidChart (yuck)

* Miro (good for diagrams, not for drawing)

* Jamboard (good for drawing, not for diagrams)

And a few inputs including:

* Wacom pencil (ok)

* Inklet pen (garbage)

* iPad Pro (great)

So far Jamboard / iPad pro is the closest to a true whiteboard experience that I've found, but it's pretty restrictive that it's tightly coupled to the physicality of the actual Jamboard, and you can't pan/scroll the whiteboard space like a lot of the pure digital options.

It would be nice to have a single tool that worked both for sketching/drawing (a la whiteboarding), but also could upgrade well to actual diagrams / boxes if you want to promote a collaborative sketch to something more permanent (say you're drafting a design doc and you want to use the sketch as your diagram-of-record).

On my list to test is the ReMarkable's shared drawing mode, haven't got round to trying that yet.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#33

Post by throwawaysea » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 7:52 PM UTC

Isn’t this a matter of making sure participants have a good input device like an iPad, more than having the fight software? There are already collaborative whiteboarding solutions but using them with mouse and keyboard doesn’t work.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#34

Post by ska » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 7:59 PM UTC

stronglikedan wrote: post #30

For those who are now WHF and absolutely cannot be without a physical whiteboard, white boardpaint (a.k.a., dry drase paint) is a super flexible solution. You can basically make any size whiteboard(s) to fit your limited space.

Or you can just buy a whiteboard that fits your space.

I've tried the paint several times (including setting up commercial spaces) and it's always a bit disappointing and becomes difficult at best to keep clean.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#35

Post by briefcomment » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

agrafix wrote: post #3

Shameless plug: I’ve built https://board.new to help with ad-hoc collaborative whiteboarding. One thing I’ve found using more sophisticated tools was that folks spent too much time making it look nice vs discussing the content. Hence this tool that doesn’t distract with that. That said, mermaid looks pretty nice —- going to try that out for my design documents once settled on an approach.

Shift to draw blows my mind.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#36

Post by oezi » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:22 PM UTC

unixhero wrote: post #10

Miro.com what everyone is gravitating towards. It is amazing. Sooo good.

Yes, at my previous gig Miro replaced all collaborative, whiteboarding, brainstorming, mind mapping and presentation software except for MS Teams. Even powerpoint was replaced.

Edit: Forgot architecture drawing software.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#37

Post by spaetzleesser » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:26 PM UTC

I think the only solution that really works will be EInk boards the same size as real whiteboards. I have tried a ton of software solutions but in the end they all have a working area that’s too small and are clunky to use.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#38

Post by ska » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:29 PM UTC

theptip wrote: post #32

nanidin wrote: post #26

I was fully remote before COVID, and the best solution I have come up with so far is iPad + Apple Pencil + Google Jamboard. I can open it on my PC and screen share from there into meetings or with others than don’t use Jamboard.

I tried a bunch of different options when my team went remote, including * Google Drawings (yuck) * LucidChart (yuck) * Miro (good for diagrams, not for drawing) * Jamboard (good for drawing, not for diagrams) And a few inputs including: * Wacom pencil (ok) * Inklet pen (garbage) * iPad Pro (great) So far Jamboard / iPad pro is the closest to a true whiteboard experience that I've found, but it's pretty restrictive t…

This looks like my list with a few minor changes. The ipad pro + a board solution just isn't functional enough to justify rolling out to a team for me, at least if you don't have other functions for that tablet. Same with the fancy graphic tablets.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#39

Post by mathogre » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

There is nothing like a whiteboard. I use paper and pencil and the Freemind mind mapper to capture and evolve ideas, but I have to have a whiteboard. When I was in the office, I had one behind me, and I used it all of the time. On Saturdays (part of my regular work schedule), I would sometimes go wild with a 15 foot wide whiteboard in one of the conference rooms. After we all began working from home, I ordered a 2ft x 3ft whiteboard for my home office. I'd truly be lost without it.

I'm not even sure how to explain it. Sometimes just putting something on the whiteboard, walking around, contemplating it, is what I need to do. I also use at least four different colors as needed. And today, with smart phones, it's very easy to capture what I've done and share with others.

Sometimes I'm creating a sketch, sometimes code, sometimes just a set of data structures. Once it was a system architecture, highlighting data exchange and functions. It can be one column or more, horizontal or angled, I can add curved arrows. Try to work out a bilinear interpolation scheme for a 3D grid over multiple time sets on a computer. Yeah, it can be done, but developing it on a whiteboard is, well, easier.

I need my whiteboard. I would be lost without it.

Re: Filling the Void of a Physical Whiteboard

#40

Post by rotten » Tue, Dec 22, 2020, 8:48 PM UTC

agrafix wrote: post #3

Shameless plug: I’ve built https://board.new to help with ad-hoc collaborative whiteboarding. One thing I’ve found using more sophisticated tools was that folks spent too much time making it look nice vs discussing the content. Hence this tool that doesn’t distract with that. That said, mermaid looks pretty nice —- going to try that out for my design documents once settled on an approach.

Pretty cool! If you are drawing and go off the edge of the screen, when you come back it doesn't let you draw again unless you lift up on the mouse button and press it back down again. Using the shift key was much less reliable than the mouse button.